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Newton 8": Skywatcher VS GSO


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Hello all,

So far I'm settling down over a 8" Newton and I've narrowed them down to the Skywatcher 200PDS and GSO 8".. in your opinion what should I buy if the main use of it will be astro-photography (and why) ? Thanks.

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My experience with a Sky watcher newt (Quattro10s) has been excellent, it's worked straight out of the box,

From what others have said about GSO newts, It sounds like they don't hold collimation as well.

So my perception is that the SkyWatcher newts are of a better design (the Quattro is at least)

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iv been consiering this as the normal SW 8" dobson is the same price as the premium GSO one. there was a lot of old reports of the mirrors needing to be recoated (GSO make the meade light bridge scopes) but nothin on the new ones so not sure its changed

i havent hered anything about collimation but teleskope service have them in stock

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And in terms of image quality do the GSO compares to the SW ?

The tool is only as good as the workman :)

Optically I would suggest they are about on par (from my experiences, others may have different opinions.)

Have you considered a faster SW Quattro over the PDS?

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The problem is budget.. I don't want to go over ~1.3k€, if I go to a more expensive SW Quattro 8" then I need to downgrade the mount from a EQ6 to a HEQ5. If I bought the EQ6 now then I'll never need to change the mount again, even if I switched the OTA to 12". HEQ5 I think will only hold up to 10".

What's your advice ?

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I think the Orion f3.9 is the same scope as the quattro with a fan bolted to it ? not sure what price they are.

Definitely get the better mount and sacrafice on the scope than the other way around :) I think for an 8inch scope the NEQ6 is a minimum for photography; as a guide you want to aim for around 50% of the max load capacity of the mount.

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I was unable to find a seller for those ones.. but the Orion 8" f/4.7 costs ~760€.. that's way far my budget.

I've found it on a US site for $430, so that will be £430 by the time a UK seller sells it.

http://www.telescope.com/Shop-by-Brand/Orion-Product-Center/Orion-Telescopes/Orion-8-f39-Newtonian-Astrograph-Reflector-Telescope/pc/8/c/90/sc/97/p/101450.uts

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I've just weighted my Nikon D7000 with the additional grip (second battery) and no lenses, it weights ~1100 grams, how do I know if the focuser/structure can hold it ? :-)

If you say that for 8" the best for AP is an EQ6.. if you want to do AP with a 12" which mount should it be ? The 50% mark is based on what ?

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The 50% is a rule of thumb, a mount will probably struggle to guide accurately near its maximum load.

My quattro10s is about 13kg, and I've got an st80 as a guide scope, plus the camera, so I'm probably near 16-17kg, and I get acceptable results on the NEQ6 (although there is no published weight limit for the NEQ6) so you could certainly try a 12"

what's the weight limit for the HEQ5? 15kg ? you'll be very close to that with an 8 inch scope + guide equipment and camera.

Not sure what focuer is fitted to the two scopes you're considering but a standard crayford focuser will probably struggle in certain positions with 1kg hanging from it.

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D7000 with grip and additional battery weights 1084, grams and without grip weights 797 grams.

The payload I've found on the net for the HEQ5 is 14 Kg and for the NEQ6 20 Kg. On the propaganda for the SW 200 PDS they state "The mechanical stiffness is very good. Even cameras with 2kgs of weight are held solidly"; for GSO I couldn't find any weight reference.. but nevertheless both newts use crayford focusers.

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I'm interested to see that the GSO wouldn't hold a DSLR without the tube flexing. It certainly wouldn't hold my CCD rig. I wouldn't invest in one of these myself. The mirror cell is not nice either.

My honest view; fast is good. Cheap is good. Fast and cheap would be good if they were compatible but they are not. Those with the patience and skill to get fast cheap imaging Newts to work have my respect and get good results, but how many nights have they lost in order to get their setups working?

Fast can also mean going out and getting started in no time flat and that means refractor. What's wrong with the mighty ED80, now cheaper than ever? You seem to be into aperture. Why? You don't need it for AP.

Olly

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Is the size of the resulting image from a ED80 smaller than a Reflector, its not so much as size matters just there are horses for courses my imagining is just a few subs to confirm i'm looking at the right DSO, so no experience or knowledge of what a ED80 would perform like....

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It's not clear for me to run from GSO as fast as I can and I will run into to arms of SW as advised by Stephen earlier. :-)

You seem to be into aperture. Why? You don't need it for AP.

Well my background is photography where f/2.8 is the good stuff; maybe I've to change my mindset.

Using telescopes with higher f will need a longer exposure time than using a telescope with a lower f.. if I'm not using guiding and using only tracking, this could be a problem ?

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The ED80 is considered the best starter scope for DSO AP. Of course the bigger ED refractors are better but a lot more expensive. If you haven't got it already get Steve Richards book "Make Every Photon Count" it tells you all you need to know in a very easy to read and well laid out book. Available from FLO or from him directly - he posts on here in the name of "SteppenWolf". Really excellent value and very highly recommended.

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Well my background is photography where f/2.8 is the good stuff; maybe I've to change my mindset.

Using telescopes with higher f will need a longer exposure time than using a telescope with a lower f.. if I'm not using guiding and using only tracking, this could be a problem ?

Guiding with a slower scope will produce much better results than going unguided with a faster scope. Guding can be as simple as connecting a webcam to a finder scope, so it's definatly something you'd want to look into if you're seriously getting into astrophotography.

edit - unless you're spending like £10k on the mount, then you don't need to guide :)

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The ED80 is the Skywatcher EVOSTAR ED80 Pro ? Does anyone have an example of a non-cropped picture of a DSO taken with that OTA ?

OK, I'll have guiding into account. :-)

You're going to need to give a couple more details else you will just get a random picture that means nothing :)

What camera / size chip?

With / without reducer?

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